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the hunt for eastlake

I have a DIY antique hunter heroine- Victoria Elizabeth Barnes . I live vicariously through her Victorian home restoration and furniture acquiring and objects d’art acquiring writings. (And if you don’t read her blog you really should, it’s delightful!)

Today I think I channeled my inner Victoria Elizabeth Barnes when I went to pick up an Eastlake table I found.

I have always had a love affair with Eastlake furniture and I finally found something that could fit in my house. I will never have a large Victorian, and sometimes Eastlake furniture can be quite substantial in size.

The Eastlake Movement was an American nineteenth-century architectural and household design reform movement started by architect and writer Charles Eastlake (1836–1906). The movement is generally considered part of the late Victorian period in terms of broad antique furniture designations…
His book Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery, and Other Details posited that furniture and decor in people’s homes should be made by hand or machine workers who took personal pride in their work. Manufacturers in the United States used the drawings and ideas in the book to create mass-produced Eastlake Style or Cottage furniture…

Eastlake furniture can be quite beautiful.

But Eastlake furniture is very still popular today and it is hard to find pieces reasonably priced that are in good shape at the same time.

So when I saw this table advertised I jumped on it. I was second in line and I did not think I was going to get it, but the woman ahead of me found it too large for her purposes so it came home with me.

A lot of Eastlake furniture is made of woods like walnut or maple also. It’s not all just heavy oak furniture like a lot of Victorian furniture.

It was a gorgeous day so I set out on my pilgrimage across part of Chester County to pick up my table. I am not sure that this table was living in Chester County before I bought it, I seem to think it came out of a house in Lancaster County.

My table needs a little TLC but I don’t think I’ll need to refinish it. I will however have to rearrange other furniture in my house to place it.

Of course I wasn’t quite sure if it was going to make it home today or not, because I am somewhat limited by a sedan in as far as how much furniture I can actually place in it. The person I bought it from and I definitely had some giggles maneuvering it into my car. But it fit! And I drove home with a table in the front seat next to me.